Another thinks they should have started from scratch at a greenfield site. Arsenal, Eden Park, Mumbai: it's the same debate the world over.

Simon Inglis writing in 2000 in Sightlines . . . A Stadium Odyssey

THERE was no debate among the worthies of the Clare county board about that offer which dropped in their letterbox the other day.

No debate as to the magnitude of its merits, at any rate.

A new stadium of their very own, built for them free, gratis and for nothing by a bunch of kind local developers. Situated on a greenfield site a mile outside Ennis. With 10,000 seats (a considerable carrot in itself, seeing that it's in seats where the serious gate money is sourced) and room for another 32,000 spectators standing. And not a single apparent catch contained anywhere within, despite the fact that developers tend not to come bearing gifts merely for the sake of it.

"A savage offer that we have to look at very carefully, " is how county chairman Michael McDonagh phrases it.

"Ennis has changed so much in the last five years that we knew Cusack Park was an extremely valuable piece of ground."

Although a price tag of 30m has been attached to the project, McDonagh emphasises that it's "far too early" to be putting a value on it. Not before the county board, the county council, the urban council and the people of Clare all get the opportunity to sit down, study the package and have their say. And not before the county board receive an anticipated separate offer from another group of developers in the next couple of weeks.

An ageing, cramped stadium in need of an overhaul on a nine-acre site within a Davy Fitz short puck-out of one of Ireland's most thriving town centres . . . and not one but two consortia willing to help the Clare county board. It never rains but it shines.

There are, of course, weighty issues to be resolved further down the line. If you build it, will they automatically come, irrespective of Kevin Costner's confident prediction? When, assuming the next Eucharistic Congress isn't awarded to Ennis, will Clare ever actually need a 42,000capacity venue? Given the existence of Semple Stadium, the Gaelic Grounds, Fitzgerald Stadium and Pairc Ui Chaoimh, is there any real reason the Munster Council would welcome the construction of another big stadium in its bailiwick?

How great is the danger that Clare will opt to try and keep up with the Joneses and thus get lumped with a vanity project whose lack of cost won't render it any less of a white elephant?

And a less weighty, less immediate issue: is the GAA ready yet for the concept of park-and-ride? Will any county board be capable some day of organising a fleet of buses to take spectators from a town centre to a stadium on a greenfield site? Will any county board be even bothered to try? Limerick mentioned the possibility of such a facility a couple of years ago for the revamped Gaelic Grounds. We're still waiting.

Plenty of hurling and football spectators like to walk across town to a match of a Sunday afternoon. Have been doing it for years. They mustn't be forgotten about if and when the day comes that the GAA moves into the country.

Such nitty-grittys aside, it's safe to guess there isn't a single county board in the land who wasn't intrigued by last week's reports of Clare's outrageous fortune.

Suddenly they're all potential millionaires.

Ask Galway, who didn't seriously consider moving out of Salthill a few years ago (maintaining a highprofile GAA foothold in the city was way too much of an imperative for that) but who could have realised an estimated 40m from the sale of Pearse Stadium had they been so inclined. Ask Naas GAA club, who just over 12 months ago moved from their old stomping ground on the Dublin road to a new home on the Sallins road boasting two full-size pitches and another two juvenile pitches.

With a developer keen on their land and the club in need of extra space to cater for their growing underage numbers, the deal suited both parties.

What's the total value of the land the clubs and county boards of Ireland are sitting on? Impossible to be precise, but it's been estimated that in the past 50 years the GAA has invested the equivalent of 2.6 billion in its physical facilities. A lot of money. A lot of venues. A lot of counties. And, with the construction sector yet to show any serious signs of a slowdown, not a few developers with covetous eyes and deep pockets.

The only surprise about the Cusack Park proposal will be if it proves the last of its kind.